Happy Monday everyone! Well, we mean as happy as Monday can be. We’re guessing that for many of you, you’re waking up a bit sore from the weekend of racing and training. From our perspective, it’s an amazing time of year in the Triathlon world. Many folks are in the final stages of their prep for the later season Ironman Races such as Mont-Tremlant, Louisville and Wisconsin, some are gearing up for Kona and the Olympic Qualifying discussions are starting for the ITU folks.

We were in the Coeur offices all weekend and once again, we had multiple computers running so we could keep up with results. We were pleased to see that the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race had cameras on course with streaming video and music. Now don’t share this or I’ll get in trouble but it is possible that during the Leadville Race coverage, they played the John Denver song Rocky Mountain High. It is also possible that Kebby knew all the words and actually started singing the song out loud!

Leadville Race logo

Speaking of “pleased”, we were incredibly happy to see that Kelly Hadiaris, took top overall female honors at the Tidewater Triathlon. Congrats Kelly!

Kelly on the bike

Kelly starting the attack

In addition, Coeur Ambassador…oops, guess I should say Coeur Professional Sarah Cameto, took a big step and made her debut as a Pro at the Steelhead 70.3. Congratulations Sarah! We’re excited for you and can’t wait to watch your continued progress.

Sarah Cameto on bike

Professional Triathlete Sarah Cameto

As you may have noticed, we’re pretty passionate about the issue of compensation for pro athletes in endurance sports(https://www.coeursports.com/blogs/latest/14929457-around-the-horn-in-womens-triathlon)  So at the risk of sounding like a broken record and at the risk of sounding like a broken record (ok..that was a joke). Seriously though, we believe that it is in everyone’s best interest to “up” the compensation for pros and we’re open to ideas on how we can help. If you have thoughts, feel free to send them to info@coeursports and include Pro Compensation in the title.

On a completely different note, we wanted to let you know that we’ll be celebrating our official first birthday on August 15th! It’s been an incredible first year and we are so thankful to so many people. Pardon the pun but we’re trying to create a company with a heart. Our thesis is that if you create great products, take care of your customers, work hard and try to make a difference the results will follow. So far, it looks like the theory is correct.

What really surprised us was the warmth of the welcome from other companies in endurance sports. Even companies that provide similar products. Now, as we’ve said in the past, we believe that a rising tide lifts all boats and that having more providers creates an environment where there is a greater chance that a customer’s needs will be met. And that should help keep them in the sport longer. Not a bad thing at all. Still, when you start a business and throw out the ole shingle (so to speak), there’s always a question about the reception. The fact other providers welcomed us warmly was incredibly refreshing.

By the way, we’re working on a few birthday surprises, so stay tuned.

Your Friends at Coeur

Reginald Holden